Chapter 1 The Beginning

[Feng Bujue, Level 27]

[Please select the game mode you wish to join.]

[You have selected Single Player Survival Mode (Nightmare). Please confirm.]

[Confirmed. Scenario generating…]

[Loading… Please wait.]

"Welcome to Thriller Paradise." The familiar line echoed once more.

[Loading complete. You are currently in Single Player Survival Mode (Nightmare).]

[This mode offers a scenario introduction and has a chance of triggering side hidden quests and a unique worldview.]

[Scenario completion reward: Randomly draw one jigsaw puzzle piece.]

[The scenario introduction will now play. The game will begin immediately after playback.]

Chi—chi—

The sound started the moment the opening CG began, seemingly the sound of something scraping across the floor.

The scene before Feng Bujue's eyes was initially pitch black. After a few seconds, it was as if eyelids were opening, a crack appearing in the center of the screen and widening, gradually allowing him to see the scene before him.

The picture was blurry, and a small, thin figure appeared in his line of sight from the back. Judging by the silhouette, it was a man, wearing a blood-stained shirt and overalls, walking in front of Feng Bujue.

And Feng Bujue, or rather, the character Feng Bujue was playing at the moment, was lying on the ground. The figure was grabbing him by one foot, dragging him along a corridor.

"Don't worry… everything will be alright… something must have gone wrong… I'll figure it out…" the figure in front muttered to himself.

Feng Bujue had no sensation at this moment, nor could he control the movement of the camera, because this was still the opening CG stage. He was simply watching someone else's experience from a first-person perspective.

About thirty seconds later, the figure stopped in front of an iron door at the end of the corridor, and then, there was a faint metallic clinking sound.

The door opened, and Feng Bujue watched helplessly as he was dragged into a room resembling a cell. The picture shook twice, finally focusing on the ceiling.

After that, the sound of the small man leaving the room and locking the door could be heard. Even as he walked out, he kept repeating those few sentences.

[Important note: Items of the "Consumable" type cannot be used in this scenario, nor can equipment and tools powered by consumables (ammunition, batteries, etc.).]

"WTF?" Feng Bujue cursed inwardly. "You didn't even tell me half of the scenario introduction, but you told me this harsh restriction first?"

He cursed too soon, because the next second, the scenario officially began.

There was no scenario introduction at all…

Feng Bujue's vision immediately overlapped with the last scene of the opening CG. He was back to lying on the ground, facing the ceiling.

The moment he regained his ability to move and his senses, a heart-wrenching, piercing pain immediately swept through his entire body. This pain was simply unbelievable, as if every bone in his body was broken, his skin was covered in large burns, and countless insects were crawling under his skin...

Of course, the pain simulated by the system was weakened. As mentioned earlier, the player's maximum pain would not exceed the intensity of a hammer hitting a finger, otherwise there would be a risk of fainting.

However, although the intensity of the pain was limited, the forms it took were still very rich. When the sensations described above happened to him, it was quite the experience. In reality, Feng Bujue had never experienced anything like this before. Even though he was an extremely tolerant person, he now had a slight urge to force quit.

[Main Quest Triggered]

[Find a way to stop the loss of Survival Value]

After hearing the system prompt, Feng Bujue immediately opened the quest log to check the contents of the quest. At the same time, he also noticed that his survival value was decreasing at a rate of 1% per second.

"What the hell kind of scenario is this!" Feng Bujue gritted his teeth and sat up. Just this action sent a burning sensation down his entire spine, and the muscles in his back and arms were also sore and numb.

He quickly began to observe his surroundings, forcibly concentrating his mind despite the distraction of the pain, keeping his brain running at high speed.

He couldn't use consumables in this scenario, which meant that Feng Bujue couldn't use health potions to restore his health. He regretted buying five Survival Value Supplement (Medium) bottles from the mall before entering the scenario, which turned out to be a waste.

Even theoretically speaking, Feng Bujue only had less than one minute and forty seconds to complete this first quest. Once this time was exceeded, it would also become his last quest.

"A way to stop it… a way to stop it…" Feng Bujue repeated this sentence, which allowed him to concentrate better.

He first glanced at the entire cell. There were no windows, only a door. The door was made of iron, with a small iron window at the top, and the light from the corridor shone in from there, shrouding most of the cell in a hazy light. There was a rectangular horizontal opening at the bottom of the iron door, just enough to send food in. The four walls of the room were stone walls, full of thickness, while the floor and ceiling were made of cement. Against the wall was a very simple bed, the bed sheet already stained with blood, making it impossible to see its original color. There were no pillows or quilts on the bed, and the four legs of the bed were not far from the ground, barely enough for a person to lie under the bed. The frame of the bed was made of iron, welded to the wall and could not be moved.

In the corner farthest from the door, there was a large blue plastic bucket. Judging from the smell emanating from it, that thing was probably the toilet.

And in the other corner of the room, there was a small wooden cabinet about one meter high, with three drawers from top to bottom. As soon as Feng Bujue saw the cabinet, he rushed over without saying a word.

In this situation, no matter what was in these three drawers, the player had to open them and see.

In the top drawer, there was a dirty bar of soap. Although it was dirty, judging from its shape, this bar of soap was very complete, a very standard rectangle, as if it had just been taken out of a mold.

The appearance of this thing was really a bit inexplicable. There was no drain in the room, and the excrement and urine were all stored in a plastic bucket, so naturally there would be no water tap. What was the purpose of putting a bar of soap here? To let the prisoner wash his hands with saliva?

Feng Bujue didn't have time to look at the item description in detail, so he first placed the thing on top of the small wooden cabinet, and then went to open the second drawer.

The middle drawer was even more interesting, inside was a candle, white, about fifteen centimeters long, slightly thicker than a finger.

"What's going on... giving soap without tap water, giving candles without matching matches... even Saw doesn't play like this." Feng Bujue said, putting the candle on top of the cabinet as well, and then went to open the third drawer.

The bottom drawer was sharp, containing a small wooden comb.

"Heh... heh..." Feng Bujue chuckled a few times. At this moment, he had almost forgotten, or rather had already adapted to, the pain in his body. Compared to this discomfort, the three things he found during the puzzle-solving process made him hurt even more.

"Okay... no hints, so what do you want me to do in this situation..." Feng Bujue muttered.

Exactly one minute had passed, and Feng Bujue's survival value was 39%. He had thirty-eight seconds to consider.

"Players can't take off their clothes in the scenario, so we can rule out the possibility of using candles to explode their own chrysanthemum..." Feng Bujue stroked his chin and said, "Eat soap? Eat candles?" His gaze moved to the bucket over there, "Or eat shit?" He shook his head. "These behaviors don't feel like they have any necessary connection with stopping the loss of survival value."

Thinking of this, his gaze returned to the small comb in his hand. "Since I can't think of any logically related methods, then I'll use all the props one by one... starting with the simplest one." As he said this, he combed his hair twice with the small comb.

Unexpectedly, before the second comb was finished, the system prompt rang.

[Current Quest Completed, Main Quest Updated]

The loss of survival value actually stopped. Feng Bujue's health was now 26%. At the beginning of the scenario, his survival value was less than 30%, and this was the first time he had encountered this.

The previous quest [Find a way to stop the loss of Survival Value] was checked off, and a new instruction appeared in the quest log: [Escape the Room]

"Huh?" Feng Bujue looked at the comb in his hand. "Although I don't have to try eating all kinds of weird things, this is too..." He said halfway, suddenly noticing something. He took the small wooden comb in front of his eyes, took a closer look, and found that very small two letters were engraved on the handle of the comb: A.A

"Well... it seems to be a limited edition." Feng Bujue said jokingly.

He took the three items, walked to the bed and sat down, put the three things on the bed, picked them up one by one, and looked at them carefully.

With the completion of the previous quest, the pain on Feng Bujue's body suddenly eased. Although he still felt a little throbbing pain, it was much more comfortable than at the beginning. To put it metaphorically, it was the difference between hanging and wearing a neck brace...

He looked for five or six minutes, the soap was nothing special, the surface had no patterns, and the smell was not very fragrant, it felt like the most primitive kind of laundry soap. The candle was also a very ordinary candle, and there were no words engraved on these two items.

"Well... is this comb the only special thing..." He picked up the small wooden comb again, looked at it in all directions, and besides the A.A mark he had just seen, he had another discovery... the hair left on this comb was golden, and looked like short hair.

"The short man who dragged me in earlier had brown hair..." Feng Bujue recalled and muttered, "Did another prisoner in this cell use it..."

As he thought, his gaze was also slowly moving. When his gaze swept to the wall next to the bed, he had a new discovery...

"Ha, it seems that quite a few people have been locked up here..."